


Sleep is for the Weak

by TheItalianWallLizard



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Everyone uses Keith for Starbucks Discounts, He and Shay make cookies together, Hes somehow the manager, Hunk (Voltron) is so Pure, Hunk deserves the world, I dont know how to tag help, I love romelle, Ill add more later maybe, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith (Voltron) is So Done, Keith wont let lance talk to him, Keith works at starbucks, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, M/M, Minor Romelle/Allura Side thing, Narcolepsy, Pidge is a force to be reckoned with, Romelle also works at starbucks, Shiro is also a professor, Slav is a Professor lol, god i love them, no beta we die like men, probably not actually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:41:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29152173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheItalianWallLizard/pseuds/TheItalianWallLizard
Summary: Keith never knew anything other than people worrying for him. In and out of the hospital for what seemed like every possible thing ever since he was kid. In and out of foster care. In and out of sleep.Everything was in and out for him. And everyone was afraid of those in and outs.He’d gotten used to the line of “Dont freak out.” Then passing out. But he didn’t expect some random guy he met at work to actually not freak out.For once, someone wasn’t afraid of him.And that absolutely terrified him.
Relationships: Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith & Romelle (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron), Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt, Lance & Romelle (Voltron), Matt Holt/Shiro
Comments: 4
Kudos: 75





	1. Thanks Random Guy from Work, You ruined my Tuesday

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this at 4 am so sorry if there's spelling mistakes Grammarly is just making fun of me so I stopped listening to it ok goodbye have fun :)

“Hey, I’m going on break,” Romelle said, tapping Keith on the shoulder as she walked behind him.

He looked up at her in acknowledgment. He continued refilling the espresso machine.

She huffed, now on the opposite side of the counter. “Not even gonna ask where I’m going?”

“...where are you going on your fifteen-minute break, Romelle?” He responded, a small smile breaking his annoyed tone.

She giggled, turning red-faced. “I’m bringing Allura coffee before she goes into work.”

Keith resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Romelle had been blabbering about Allura for weeks, and it was almost comical to see her get so lovestruck every time she said her name.

The last time the two met up, Romelle looked like the personified version of “:D”.

Keith had one word to describe it, _ew_.

“Have fun then.” He waved to her, though she was already out the door by the time he said anything.

The bell for the door rung as she skipped off to go on her mini-date. Keith knelt down, opening the cabinet underneath the machines and grabbing the cups in the back.

A wave of dizziness hit him, his head feeling like someone ripping open curtains in a dark room. He shut his eyes and exhaled, the pounding on the right side of his head getting even worse.

He cursed under his breath, grabbing the stack of cups again and forcing himself to get up.

“Are you okay?” A guy said from behind the counter, sounding more surprised than concerned.

Keith we nearly fell back down again at the sound of someone else’s voice. He hadn’t heard the door open, nor the bell that could practically be heard from a mile away.

He gained his balance again and finally looked the guy at the counter in the eyes. He was wearing a blue and white Nike Sweatshirt, which was about all Keith could process at the moment.

“Yeah. Uhh… sorry.”

“It’s fine, man. Is Romelle here?”

“She just left. I think just left—I don’t know how long…” Keith trailed off, everything still feeling disoriented and delayed. “She’s on break.”

“Damn. Uh, you know when she’ll be back?”

Keith shook his head. He wasn’t avoiding any more conversation like he normally would be, he genuinely had no idea.

“I guess I’ll order then.” The guy said. He waited a second before quickly adding, “if that’s not like, a problem or anything. I can always wait.”

“S’fine.” He leaned his hand on the counter next to him, trying to stabilize himself. “What do you want?”

The guy looked guilty but began to order. Short and simple, minus the many “sorry’s” in-between half his words. Keith grabbed a cup and uncapped the marker from his lanyard, trying to remember what he had said.

“Just an iced coffee right?”

“Yeah.”

He nodded, marking the small box on the side of the cup. He paused, his vision going in and out. Now was not the time. Yet again, timely and favourable was non-existence when Cataplexy came into the picture.

“Don’t freak out.” Keith managed, feeling his knees buckle. He collapsed almost immediately after.

_Fuck this._

Luckily, his head didn’t hit the floor that hard. Other than that, it was as usual. Tell anyone near to not freak out, then lose pretty much all control of your muscles.

Once again, _fuck this._

He took a second before trying to twitch his fingers again. Once he felt like he was actually in his body again, he sat up and looked at the guy in front of him. He looked initially shocked, but he hadn’t moved from where he was before Keith had gone out.

“You alright?” He asked, a slight curve in the corner of his mouth.

Keith nodded, rubbing the back of his head. He tried to stand but ended up just pulling one of his knees up near his chest.

“You want help or…?”

Keith glared at him, shakily standing up on his own. He had nothing to prove to this guy, but at the same time, he had just about everything to prove to this guy.

“I’m fine.” He mumbled, leaning on the counter once again.

“Just making sure.” The guy said with a laugh. He began fidgeting with his phone case for a second before speaking back up. “My friend’s brother has Narcolepsy actually.”

“That’s…cool.”

“That probably sounded weird. I didn’t mean it to be weird—god, I dont even know if you have it.“

“It’s alright.” He replied, picking out another cup. He waited for a second, feeling the other guy’s eyes still on him. “And I do have it.”

The guy nodded, watching Keith mark on the cup. He didn’t say anything else after that, probably picking up on Keith’s agitation. He stayed at the counter, however, watching intently, as if he’d never seen someone make coffee before.

Keith put the lid on and slid the cup near the register. He tossed a straw as well, praying it wouldn’t fall off as it slid a little too close to the edge for comfort. The register counter was always slippery.

“$2.87.”

The guy pulled off his phone case and handed Keith his card. Keith glanced at it before sliding it in the chip.

_Lance McClain._

“Haven’t heard the name Lance before. It’s cool.”

“Thanks,” Lance said, sounding confused. He glanced at Keith’s apron before looking back up at him. “I’d say something about yours but…y’know, you don’t have a tag.”

Keith handed Lance his card back, sliding his coffee and straw with it. “Romelle took it.”

“So I’ll just have to ask Romelle what your name is?”

“Why would you do that?”

Lance shrugged, putting his card back in his phone case. “I thought I recognized you, that’s all.”

He grabbed his coffee and walked to a table near the corner of the store. He sat down and checked the time, then glanced out the window.

 _I’ve never even seen this guy before_ , Keith thought. _And he recognizes me? Seriously?_

He exhaled, grabbing the cup from earlier off the floor. He tossed it into the garbage can on the end of the counter. He looked over at Lance again, who still hadn’t touched his drink. He was spinning his straw between his index finger and his thumb.

Keith shook his head slightly and began restocking cups, which was what he originally planned to do if he wasn’t so rudely interrupted by his fucked up neurons.

The door opened when he was about halfway done restocking the cups, and their voice made more of an entrance than they did.

“LANCE?” Romelle squeaked.

Keith stood, seeing Romelle practically attack Lance before he could get up from the chair he was in. His laughter lit up the room.

“Holy shit!” She pushed him back from the hug, still holding onto his shoulders. “Why are you here! You—You live hours away!”

“Thought I’d say hi to everyone before we all went off to college.”

“Went off? We’re all going to Garrison; It’s like a forty-minute drive at most.”

“Well, it’s gonna be like ten for me.” He laughed again. Must’ve been a nervous thing, he hadn’t stopped laughing since Romelle walked in.

“Wait...Wait! LANCE YOU’RE KIDDING!” She pulled him into another hug, burying her head into his shoulder. She said something else, but it was muffled.

Keith stood uncomfortably for a second before kneeling behind the counter again. He sat down, crossing his legs, starting to finish the cups. He tried to block out the rest of Lance and Romelle’s conversation, but it was almost impossible. Half of it was yelling making it pretty hard to ignore successfully.

“Katie’s gonna lose it!” Romelle paused. “Oh my god, does she even know you're here?”

“So far you’re the only one. I was planning on trying to surprise everyone.”

“Oh my god, Matthew is going to scream.”

“More than you?”

The two laughed, Both of their smiles were audible.

Keith stayed on the floor, despite being done with the cups.

  
— — —

The house was quiet when Keith got back from work. Definitely a drastic difference from Romelle screaming early 2000’s pop-music in the car. In Between her singing, she explained the plan that she and Lance had come up with. Of course, the Brogane & Holt household (still the worst joke ever, according to Keith) would be the venue for their godforsaken plan.

Lance knew just about everyone personally for years, which was weird, considering Keith hadn’t even heard this guy’s name until three hours ago. He wanted to surprise everybody, which seemed to be going great based on Romelle’s reaction earlier. Lance seemed like the type of guy to want to surprise his friends with something that big.

Moving from Mid-California to Texas? That was a bold move. Especially since it’s well, _Texas_. He seemed confident in his decision though, he’d said joked about keeping your enemies closer or something like that when he was in the Starbucks with Romelle.

He seemed like a good guy, from what Keith saw, but something about him was odd. Even after years of living with him, Shiro still freaked out about Keith’s Narcolepsy. Matt still flinched to catch him every time he began to fall. Katie still made sure he wasn’t over-working himself or standing still for too long.

Lance didn’t even move. He said that someone he knew had it, but that still didn’t explain why his smile hadn’t faltered when Keith tried to brush him off, or why he didn’t sound concerned when he struggled to keep his balance. He only offered help once and didn’t press it any longer.

And in all honesty, it was terrifying for Keith. Absolutely terrifying.

Someone he hadn’t even known the name of, was less afraid for him than his own family, who had seen it for years. Someone he didn’t even know had thought—not thought, _knew_ —knew that Keith was still just as capable.

Maybe he was just overthinking it. He tended to do that.

“Mornin’ Keith.” Katie hit his arm as she passed him, knocking him out of his trance at the front door. She was holding her phone, playing Solitaire. “How’d you sleep today?”

“Romelle told you what happened, didn’t she?”

Katie stopped, turning on her foot. “She texted me after her break. It was buried in a paragraph about Allura if that makes you feel any better about it.”

“‘Better’ is about the opposite I feel about it,” Keith replied.

She rolled her eyes. “I thought you didn’t feel? New upgrade, Robot boy?”

Katie’s older brother Matthew had started a joke when he and Shiro started dating that Keith was a robot. When he was younger, he had no concept of adding tone to sentences, making every word that came out of his mouth sound like constantly pressing one key on a piano for the entire song.

“You’re more of a robot than I am.”

“Your brother has a metal arm!”

“Hey, that happened before I was legally his brother.”

“Good goin’.” She started walking to the kitchen. “Blaming everything on the law!” She snickered, the crinkling of a bag of chips following shortly after.

Keith didn’t respond, not having enough energy to deal with her go on any longer. At the rate the conversation was going, she’d bring up Mothman somehow, and that always ended up being at least a two-hour road-trip.

  
He made his way to his room, shutting his door quietly behind him. He set his apron and hat down on his desk and threw himself onto his bed.

His mind felt numb, just as his entire body did. He’d worked with Romelle today since Matt wasn’t able to take him to work this morning. He would have asked Katie, but she fell asleep when everyone else woke up.

A ping on his phone startled him out of almost falling asleep. He sat up, looking at the notification.

_Sent from (Romelle) to (Everyone) “Be @ Shiro’s house @ whenever before 8 we r watching a movie luv u be there please keith dont leave u promised ok gb luv u all luv u luv u”_

Keith tossed his phone down beside him, sighing.

 _Great_ , he thought, lying back down again. _Could today get any worse?_

The answer was yes, absolutely it could.


	2. I hate trains, specifically welcome trains

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took forever whoops

Shay, surprisingly, was the first one to catch onto Romelle’s plan. Despite her having a slight absence from the rest of the group, she found out not even an hour after Romelle sent the text. 

And Romelle...

Romelle was absolutely _ not  _ having it. 

“She doesn’t even know Lance!”

“Neither do...I?” 

“It’s different though!” Romelle sighed dramatically, rubbing her eyes. She perked up abruptly. “What if she tells Hunk? They’re like best friends! He’d be...I don’t know! Agh!”

Her head returned to her hands, an exasperated sigh filling the rest of the silence between the two. Keith adjusted his phone, making himself slightly more visible than he was before. 

“Shay wouldn’t say anything. It’s Shay, she wouldn’t want to ruin anything for anyone.” Keith said after a minute. “How d you think she knows anyway? Did she text you or something?”

“Ugh, Yes! That’s why I’m complaining about it, stupid!” She grabbed her phone off of her make-shift folded blanket tripod and pulled it closer to her face. She held a more serious expression this time. “Does Katie know?” She sounded genuinely upset this time, her eyes looking dull and watery. 

“No.”

“I just—I just wanted to surprise everyone, so did Lance but...He’s been here for a week, Keith. He’s been moving into his apartment and getting everything ready for college and all that. Apparently, he’s been looking into colleges around here since he was sixteen.” Romelle stopped, thinking for a second. “Can I come over early?”

Keith glanced at his laptop, checking the time. 5:38 pm. “You said you were coming over at six anyway.”

She furrowed her eyebrows, frowning slightly. “Seven.”

“You said six.”

She turned her phone slightly to show more of her frown. “Shush it, Keith.”

It took her a second, but her laugh finally caught up to her. A smile spread across her face, and the worry lines that had been ingrained on her forehead the last hour had disappeared. 

“I’ll be there in twenty.”

Before Keith could respond she ended the facetime, leaving Keith looking at a reflection of himself in his camera.

The last few months crept into his thoughts, making him shudder. Just looking at himself made him sick.

He didn’t look good, that was always a given for him. But this was different, he looked ill, horribly ill. The dark circles under his eyes were still visible underneath his hair. God, speaking of his hair, he hadn’t gotten it cut in months. The hood of his sweatshirt was up, but you could still see back of his hair curling onto the sides of his neck. He reached up and ran his fingers through the back of his hair, it was longer than he remembered it being. 

No wonder Lance had asked him if he was okay, he looked like he hadn’t slept, eaten, or been outside in weeks. 

“Hey, Keith.” Matthew opened the door, leaning on the frame. “Oh, you okay?”

Keith nodded, taking his hand away from his hair. “I just got off a call with Romelle. She said she’d be here in...twenty minutes I think. I forgot.”

“Alright, she coming early I guess?”

“Mhm.”

Matt pushed himself off the doorframe with his elbow. He stopped just before his hand reached the door handle and turned to Keith again.   
  


“Katie’s out by the way; She’s picking up Hunk and Shay right now.” Matthew waited for a second, seeing the silent ‘oh’ in response from Keith. “Yeah, I forgot she had a licence too honestly.”

They both sat there for a second, not saying anything. That was a common thing when anyone was talking to Keith. Silence in between sentences that should have had responses. 

His friends had gotten used to it—it was just the way he was.

“You can come and talk to Kashi and me while we’re making dinner if you want.”

“While  _ you’re  _ making dinner.” Keith uncrossed his legs and slid off his bed, grabbing his phone in the process. “I’m not letting him near the stove after last time.”

Matt pushed the door open just a bit, a dorky smile on his face. “He’s on cabinet duty tonight.”

“I dont even trust him with finding cups.”

— — —

8:13 pm. Eight minutes until Lance would be knocking on the front door. At least that’s what Romelle kept whispering to Keith. 

Katie showed up with Hunk and Shay at around Seven. They got sidetracked and make cookies together. How you could get sidetracked by making cookies, Keith had no idea. But hey, Hunk’s cookies were a godsend, so you couldn’t really be mad at the guy.

“I let Katie frost a few of them. You can tell which ones they are, haha.” Shay giggled, holding up two sugar cookies in comparison.

One was frosted to look like a flower, and the other had ‘Die’ badly written in cursive. The second one was Katie’s without a doubt. If it wasn’t that’d actually be concerning.

“Sorry about the holdup, seriously. She showed up when we were putting the second batch in the oven.” Hunk added, rubbing the back of his head. “I mean...Cookies though? Right?”

Matt walked behind him, patting him on the back, a cookie half-shoved in his mouth. He mumbled something that sounded along the lines of ‘hell yeah’, but it sounded more like ‘huhmyah’. 

“He means yes.” Shiro translated. He was the second-best at understanding half the things that came out of Matt’s mouth. The first one, being Katie obviously.

“I know,” Hunk said, putting his head down. His smile ensured his intent in the gesture though. 

Romelle kept checking the time, glancing at the door every so often. She and Keith were sitting on the couch together, half-listening to the conversation in the kitchen and half-watching High School Musical 2. She had been extremely uptight ever since Lance texted her that he was on was his way, not even joining in on making fun of Matt earlier.

“God Lance would not let you hear the end of this.” Katie laughed.

Romelle tensed at his name, looking over to Keith desperately. 

“Hey, Keith, have you ever talked to Lance before?” Hunk asked, leaning on his arms on the kitchen counter.

“I’ve never...talked to him. I know who he is though. Sort of.”

“He’s this guy we, well, technically Katie met him first…” He looked over to the girl sitting on the counter next to him, holding her phone like a second-grader holding a juice box. (Legs crossed like one and everything). “You explain it.”

“Met Lance on Tumblr actually. We were both  _ super  _ into Hamilton, which I still tease him about. He deserves it—sorry, rambling—He and I have just been friends since, I introduced him to hunk and everything about two years later. He lives in Cali.” She put her phone down and looked at Keith. “I swore I’ve told you about him.”

Shay’s eyes lit up and she clapped her hands together softly. “Oh! Hunk face-times him a lot.”

“Lance is kind of my best friend.” He said with a laugh. There was a twinge of guilt behind it though.

Everyone went quiet, getting hit by the small amount of negative emotion from Hunk like a truck. It was normal for him to be upset, just like everyone else, but certain things affected everyone, not only Hunk.

This, whatever this was, was one of them. And Keith? Keith fucking hated it.

There was a difference between the silence after Keith talks, and the silence after someone else talks. Usually, the second one was a lot worse than the first. 

“Lance thinks your name is Akira still.”

“ _ Still?” _

It was something Katie started when Keith was fourteen. About a year after Matt and Shiro had gotten together, the two introduced Katie and Keith to one another. Thus began the most annoying, long-running joke in the entire friend group. 

_ Keith Akira Kogane. _

When two awkward early teenagers usually meet each other, they just ask weirdly personal questions about nothing and hope they can stop talking to each other as soon as possible. For Katie however, she took that opportunity to remember  _ everything  _ Keith had said. For example, the fact that Keith’s middle name was Akira.

“You  _ told  _ him about that?”

“Would you rather say I have a stupid emo brother named Keith? Because Keith is the most disappointing name I’ve heard ever.”

“Matthew.  _ Matthew.” _

A knock on the door interrupted their short dispute. Romelle bounced up off the couch almost immediately, running for the door like her life depended on it.

Katie, Shay, and Hunk peered around the wall separating the kitchen and living room to try to get a look at who was at the door. Seriously, who would show up to the house at 8:30 at night on a Tuesday?

Lance  _ fucking  _ McClain, that’s who. Keith looked back at Shay, who had an expectant smile on her face. There was no doubt that she knew now. Romelle still hadn’t opened the door yet, her hand hovering over the handle.

“Who is it?” Katie asked. Romelle took a breath then opened the door, pulling the person on the other side into the house. 

And there stood Lance, who looked nervous out of his ass, holding his keys like they were worth a million dollars, smiling like a goddamned idiot.

— — —

Keith wished he skipped out of the greeting because  _ god  _ it was loud. He felt bad for not wanting to be there, but Shay came over about half-way through to make him not look like he was just uncomfortably standing in a corner the entire time.

“I don’t know him that well either honestly,” Shay said after a while, nudging Keith’s shoulder with her elbow. She kept an eye on him for a second before frowning, examining the dazed look on his face. “We can go to the kitchen if that’s better for you, Keith.”

“Yeah,” he answered distantly, his head feeling clouded. 

She helped him up, nearly dragging him to the kitchen. The background (which felt and sounded more like foreground) noise hadn’t faltered. She picked up a cookie, a frosted red flower, and placed it in Keith’s hands. Keith looked at it blankly, not processing much other than  _ ‘loud’.  _

He saw Shay’s head perk up before she started talking. “I’ve maybe talked to Lance twice. He’s a good kid, I can see why Hunk gets along with him so well. Katie too.” Shay reached up and put her hand on Keith’s shoulder. “You’d like him, y’know. Don’t be afraid to introduce yourself, alright?”

He nodded, still staring at the cookie. Shay pulled her hand away and walked out of the kitchen. Someone must’ve called her name. It was probably Hunk, considering how quickly she left.

Keith stayed in the kitchen, not moving. Part of him felt bad for spacing out of Lance’s welcome, but the other part didn’t. He didn’t even  _ know  _ the guy, why should he have to join the unnecessary chaos of greeting him?

Everything felt like trying to look through an almost fully opaque window. An attempt in vain; unclear and cold. Despite it being mid-summer, it still felt as if the breeze in the house was too close to freezing. Keith’s entire body felt like it was turning to stone, each of his nerves slowly beginning to ignore his control. 

— — —

Keith woke up from the small creak of his door opening. He opened his eye slightly to see who it was, but he couldn’t tell. His hair was covering the majority of his face, and his vision was blurry, which didn’t help much.

They didn’t open his door any further, they just stood in the doorframe for a second before closing it again.

“He’s still asleep.” a voice followed after the click of the door sounded. “At least I think. His hair was…” Keith couldn’t hear any more after that. He hadn’t recognized the voice either, but he usually had trouble discerning voices after he woke up. 

The sound of laughter somewhere else in the house made him jump. He sat up, moving his hair out of his eyes. He was still wearing everything he was before, so luckily he didn’t black out an entire day or anything. That happened more when he was younger, now if it ever did it was just a few hours.  _ Thank god, that was the worst,  _ Keith thought.

He got off of his bed, grabbing his phone off of his desk. Everyone’s voices became more clear when he stood up. It sounded like they were talking over a movie, but Keith couldn’t tell. 

He waited before grabbing the handle of his door, debating whether or not he should go out there. Katie would probably be pissed; She always was whenever Keith woke up from passing out. She was never upset that he passed out, her lecture was usually about him just not getting enough sleep.

Matt and Shiro were better about it, but only because they didn’t voice their worries as much as Katie did. If they had, Keith wouldn’t have the ability to handle it. The two were like overbearing parents, or as close to parents as they could get for him.

He shook his head lightly, finally opening his door. 

Katie’s voice echoed through the house. A threat, not surprisingly, heard often, “If I land on Park Place I’m killing everyone in the room.”

Keith walked into the living room, his hands in his sweatshirt pockets. He watched as Katie rolled the dice, a loud sigh of relief following soon after. She looked over, her face lighting up.

“Keith!” 

“Morning, dumbass.” Matt joked. “Sleep well?”   
  


He responded by flipping him off, which he a thousand percent deserved.

“Well Lance, I guess you get to meet our resident asshole properly now.”

  
“Oh fuck  _ off.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I listened to mistki alot when i wrote this,,, idk just thought I would mention that


	3. Keith is an Unpredictable Light Switch

Lance set his keys on the hook near the banister, sighing from exhaustion.

Tonight was a fucking trainwreck. That wasn’t a topic up for debate, it was quite obvious that it just...was.

Everything was going well, better than Lance had expected honestly. Everyone was genuinely so happy to see him, it made him realize he had made the right decision. Katie and Matt, unlike he thought they would, weren’t mad at him at all. 

Everything was exactly how it should have been until it wasn’t of course. 

Keith, Shiro’s younger brother, passed out in the kitchen. I knew he had Narcolepsy, Katie used to call me whenever it got bad just to get her worry off her chest.

She always said that the days where it was bad for him, it was bad for everyone else too. I never understood what she meant until I could  _ feel  _ the silence that followed the sound of him falling to the ground. 

The air was so still, I could barely breathe any more of it into my lungs. 

Katie was right. Hearing him fall was one of the most suffocating feelings in the world. 

She told Lance afterward that she’d trained herself to hear the difference between every sound made when he passed out. She never told Keith that, however, saying that he would be upset with her if he ever found out.

Lance walked across his apartment, opening the door to his room quietly. He was living by himself now, but living with his entire family, it had become second nature to not wake anyone up with even the slightest noise.

He threw himself into his bed, enjoying finally be able to relax.

He’d been playing monopoly the entire night, as well as making shitty jokes about the movies that came on while they were playing.

Hunk and Shay sat out of the game, which was understandable. Playing Monopoly with Katie was like playing chess with a bear. Shiro didn’t play either, sitting on the couch behind Matthew, messing with his hair for the majority of the game.

His phone beeped, lighting up the dark room slightly. Lance sighed, picking his phone up.

_ Sent from (Shiro) to (you): hey, thanks for checking on Keith earlier. Things just got overwhelming for him; sorry about that. _

_ Sent from (Shiro) to (you): he wanted to apologize for ‘ruining your welcome train’ as he said it. I know things got a bit weird tonight after he passed out, so I’m sorry for that as well. _

Lance squinted at the last text. Shiro had the tendency to blame himself, it seemed that trait was hereditary. Lance sighed, sitting up to respond.

_ Sent from (you) to (Shiro): it’s fine, man _

_ Sent from (you) to (Shiro): it happened earlier today when I met him too, guess I have a thing for making him pass out haha _

_ Sent from (you) to (Shiro): okay, bad joke, shouldn’t have said that. Srsly though, it’s alright, I’m just glad that he’s not hurt or anything. _

_ Sent from (you) to (Shiro): and hey! We still got to play monopoly and talk about college stuff, which is what I wanted, even if there were a few road bumps on the way _

Shiro responded with a thumbs up and a smiley-face, signifying the end of the conversation. Lance tossed his phone beside him, burying his head into his pillow.

He was glad he was able to see everyone finally, but at the same time, he wanted to sleep for the next seven years. He was absolutely drained from the last few hours.

His mind wandered, however, despite being on the verge of falling asleep. A dark and ragged scar contrasting on feverishly pale skin seemed to control his thoughts. 

He couldn’t help but wonder how it got there, and why Keith would cover it with his hand or hair when he noticed someone looking at it. 

— — —

“¡ Te quiero!”

“I LOVE YOU! OH MY GOD, YOU’VE SAID IT A MILLION TIMES!”

“Hmm, Lance, mamã?” Veronica’s voice came over the phone. She sounded as if she was chewing something as said it. Most likely her breakfast, despite it being mid-afternoon. 

“Vera, Vera! Tell him you love him too!” 

Lance sighed dramatically. “Mom! You can speak English just fine! I wasn’t even  _ raised  _ on Spanish!”

“Quejarse, y hablo español el resto de tu vida, chico.” His mother’s tone became more stern, but her smile was still there. A habit of Mrs McClain; reprimand her kids while making sure they know you love them. “Te quiero, Lance.”

“Yo también te quiero, mamá.” Lance groaned. He waited a second before adding, “Siempre.”

He  _ did  _ love his mother, his entire family in fact, but he’d been trying to get off the phone with her for nearly ten minutes. Ever since he officially moved out of his mom’s place, he’d gotten more texts and calls from family than he’s had in maybe all Nineteen years of his life combined.

It was an obvious fate, however, considering that’s what usually happened when any child leaves the house for school. The calls and texts were nice, but instead of making Lance feel at home, it just made him even  _ more  _ homesick. 

He wanted nothing more than a hug from his mother. His notifications chimed once again, bringing him out of his thoughts.    
  


_ Sent from (Unkown) to (you): You can come over once Shiro gets home. Or before. I dont care. Just dont talk to me. _

He was expecting a text from his mom or Veronica, not an unknown number. He half wanted to ignore it, but he had a feeling he shouldn’t. He read over it again, responding, even though he was rightfully confused. 

_ Sent from (you) to (unknown): Uhhh _

_ Sent from (you) to (unknown: ok? _

_ Sent from (Unknown) to (you): It’s Keith. Matt lost his phone; he’s making me text you.  _

Lance sat there for a minute, processing his text. The only other people he’s seen send a text like it’s an urgent email was his parents, but even they didn’t sound like complete robots. He saved the number, typing in Keith’s name in the contact.

_ Sent from (Keith) to (you): Sorry, I dont like texting people. I probably sound weird or something. _

_ Sent from (you) to (Keith): Oh, no, it’s fine man I was just confused at first haha _

_ Sent from (you) to (Keith): just didn’t know you had my number lol _

_ Sent from (Keith) to (you): Katie’s not awake yet if you want to come over before she wakes up. You can surprise her or whatever. _

_ Sent from (Keith) to (you): ^^^ matt’s idea. He’s looking over my shoulder. _

_ Sent from (you) to (Keith): Had a feeling it was his lmao _

_ Sent from (you) to (Keith:) I was just gonna text matt and ask if I could come over actually, so I’ll be over in a bit _

Keith, unsurprisingly, left him on read. Just from that short interaction, Lance had a feeling that Keith had already run out of patience with him. It sounded as if even being told to text him had already pissed him off.

Not that Lance cared though. He was used to easily irritated people, half of his family was like that, even he was. Not as much as Keith however. From last night and just now, it was evident he couldn’t control his emotions.  _ If he had any in the first place… _

— — —

Matt had to have had a degree in making people fall over. Within not even 24 hours of seeing Lance, he’d already tackled him to the ground three times.

Katie was awake when he got there, but she looked as if she was still asleep. She tried to sit at the counter next to Keith, but he pushed her over every time she even got near him. He was sitting with his legs crossed on the chair (which looked extremely uncomfortable, but to each their own), typing on his laptop. His expression was notably distressed, but neither Matt nor Katie mentioned it.

The only time he wasn’t in a staring contest with the screen was when someone either said his name or he got a text. Which, surprisingly, was one of the things that kept him “Shiro’s working late.”

“Aw, come on, are you kidding?” Matt whined. “He went in early though!”

“It’s all he said. Here.” Keith’s answers were brief, a slight hint of aggravation in his voice. He slid Matt his phone, who frowned as he read the text. 

“Why’d he text you? He never texts you unless it’s an emergency.”

“He might still think your phone is lost,” Lance suggested. “Keith might’ve told him when you lost it in case he tried to call you or anything.”

“I did.” Keith’s eyes lit up for a second, but it shimmered out as he looked at Matt and Lance. “I thought you would text him you found it or whatever.”

Matt rolled his eyes, moving to the opposite side of the counter next to Keith. He placed Keith’s phone on the counter as he settled in the chair beside him. “You’ve gotta take a break, man.”

“He’s right, Keith,” Katie mumbled from the couch. She looked up from her phone. “Rereading your email isn’t going to make them respond any quicker.”

“What if it does…?”

“It won’t. I did that once and just ended up messing up my sleep schedule for like a week.”

“You realize who you’re talking to about  _ sleep,  _ right?” 

Lance’s face dropped, realizing what he had said.  _ Fuck me, god, I’m an idiot.  _ He stammered multiple apologies, but Keith’s expression didn’t change.

Keith sat there for a second, keeping eye contact with Lance before bursting out into laughter. Katie and Matt finally broke too, joining in. Lance sat there uncomfortably until Keth stopped to catch his breath. He looked at Lance quickly, but long enough for Lance to notice one thing: Keith had dimples.

“Keith, you’ve gotta stop freakin’ the guy out so much,” Katie said finally. 

“Might scare him back to California,” Matt added, sounding like he had just run a mile. It was easy to forget he had asthma with as much as he yelled.

Lance’s body untensed, sighing with relief.

“Pleasneverdothateveragainohmygod.”

Keith looked up at him, the smile that was there just seconds ago gone without a trace. He didn’t say anything, but the air around him became nearly the exact opposite it just was. 

Katie and Matt had already gotten too distracted in a side conversation to notice. Keith went straight back to staring at his computer, his eyes hesitantly scanning the screen.

How quickly Keith had switched up almost scared Lance. He seemed so genuinely happy, but the second anything changed, so did he. It was terrifying honestly. 

— — —

Matt and Katie had taken off to McDonald’s just a few minutes earlier, and Keith had already broken down twice.

Well, maybe broken down wasn’t the right phrase, but it was obvious he had been holding in his emotions until the other two left. He had gone to his room for a while, leaving Lance to himself in the living room for about ten minutes. He came out wearing a different sweatshirt, and his face was redder than it was prior. 

“When did you apply to Garrison?” Keith’s voice was fragile sounding.

“What?”

“When did you apply to Garrison. Time-frame, idiot.”

“I did it before the early admission deadline,” Lance replied. He thought a bit before adding specifics. “Like November-ish. Why?”

“When did you get accepted?” 

“March. Again, why?”

Keith didn’t respond. He walked off to the kitchen, pulling his hood over his hair. 

_ Oo-okay,  _ Lance thought to himself. He didn’t question the interaction any further. Keith didn’t even know who Lance was until just recently, so it was understandable that he was trying to learn a bit more about him. Even if it was a bit weird how he did it.

He came back with a metal water bottle clutched in his hands. He took advantage of the two couches that occupied the living room, taking the opposite one to sit as far away from Lance as possible.

The two sat in silence for a while, each ignoring the other. The TV wasn’t on, making the AC the only thing that kept the line of silence from becoming too uncomfortable.

Keith’s phone rang, and both of them perked their head up. Keith’s eyes widened and he got up quickly, picking up the call not even a second after his feet hit the floor. 

“Hello?” He didn’t look at Lance as he passed him. He grabbed his laptop from the kitchen counter and made his way to his room before stopping in the back of the living room. “What do you mean it’s been transferred?” 

He glanced at Lance for a second before continuing to his room, the voice on the other line still audible until he closed his door. Lance tried to stop himself from being too curious about it. But he couldn’t help it, those seven words could mean a million different things.

A few minutes passed and Lance’s phone lit up.

_ Sent from (Keith) to (you): Hey, I might pass out. Don’t worry, _ _ I’m fine.  _

Lance stared at his phone again, rereading the text a few times. He wasn’t too knowledgable when it came to Narcolepsy (or Keith for that matter), but he knew that Cataplexy kicked in during and after intense emotions.

Shiro had mentioned the night before that Keith had gotten overwhelmed a while after Lance showed up, which caused him to pass out. But why was Keith passing out now? Was he just tired? Or was he actually passing out? 

Or what Lance just overthinking things?

_ Sent from (Keith) to (you): I thought I said don’t worry. _

“You freak out easily, huh?” Keith said from behind him.

Lance practically felt his soul leave his body. He turned around, glaring at Keith. He gave Lance an airy laugh in response, his expression matching one of a toddler who just successfully scared someone.

“Dickhead.”

“I’m pretty sure you were out longer than I was.” Keith had a faint light in his eyes. “I said I was fine. Shiro told me to tell you when it happened if you were over.”

“As I said,” Lance huffed. “Dick. Head.”

“And as I said,  _ don’t worry.”  _

Lance wasn’t a violent person, but right now, he wanted to sucker-punch Keith. Multiple times. 

“Why’d you pass out? Shiro said—”   
  


“—That it usually happens when I get overwhelmed. He gives the same speech to everyone who meets me.” Keith’s face lowered for a second before he continued. His expression was almost...disappointment. “I guess I was. I don’t know.” His voice was filled with so much doubt, it almost made Lance start doubting himself.

“What happened?”

“Nothing.” His expression suddenly became guarded, his tone following as well. “Why would you care?”

“Jeez, dude! I was just curious!” Lance put his hands up defensively. 

Keith didn’t say anything to him after that, but his eyes stared daggers into Lance for a few seconds, before he walked off. 

Lance was usually pretty good at reading people, but Keith? Trying to figure out anything about this guy was impossible. It was like reading a book with no words from thirty feet away, upsidedown, with your eyes closed. 

Maybe that analogy wasn’t accurate, but it sure as hell felt accurate. 

  
Lance prayed that Matt and Katie would get back soon because he didn’t know how much longer Keith would even let Lance _live._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got a laptop of my own finally, so I spent like 4 hours writing this instead of sleeping again ahahah
> 
> Also thanks for all the support/kudos :) I'm glad people are liking it (I hope at least lol)

**Author's Note:**

> I had fun writing this when I was supposed to be sleeping lol
> 
> Also i had to edit back in the italics, I Hadn’t realized they didn’t transfer hhahdjaja


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